The LG Wright Auction - by Johanna Billings
Originally published in the "Rose Bowl Collectors" newsletter
Reprinted with permission - Copyright © 1999 Fenton Fanatics
                                        and Johanna Billings

   This past Memorial Day weekend marked a major event in glass history: the closing and liquidation of the L.G. Wright Glass Co. of New Martinsville, WV.
    The stock, molds and equipment were sold at auction starting May 27. Although the auction was scheduled to run only three days, there was so much stuff that a fourth day was added. Even after the fourth day concluded, some stock remained and was taken back to the auctioneer's home base in Arkansas to be sold at a later date.
    Two important things occurred here for glass collectors as a whole. The first of those was the sale of the molds. Although Wright made mostly reproductions, collectors are rightfully concerned because representatives from Castle Antiques & Reproductions of Hawley, PA and AA Importing of St. Louis, MO shared a bidding number to purchase 147 out of approximately 740 mold lots. A number of people wonder why these two outfits would share a number and some speculate they may be owned by the same people. I don't know because AA's president hung up on me when I called and Castle declined to be interviewed also, albeit a bit more politely.
   Regardless, there is little doubt that glass produced from molds purchased by these two firms will be unmarked and pawned off to unsuspecting buyers. In addition to the catalogued molds, Castle/AA representatives paid $20 a pop for any complete mold, regardless of pattern, shape or condition, from a scrap dealer who bought literally tons or scrap and managed to salvage some molds. He said he was told the molds will be sent to China to be put into production.
    The Castle/AA partnership didn't get any molds specifically described as being for rose bowls, but that's not to say they can't take a mold for some other kind of bowl and make a rose bowl out of it. Dugan's Grape Delight rose bowls, for example, are made from the same mold as the nut dishes in that pattern. So it's been done before. For that reason, I advise everyone to be suspicious of rose bowls they haven't encountered before, or rose bowls in patterns not previously known to include rose bowls. You should also expect to see rose bowls appear in patterns such as Maize, that may have been made using the mold for another shape, and it's anyone's guess who will create them, in what colors and what dimensions.
    For some clues to where these will eventually come from, be sure to get the September issue of Antique & Collector's Reproduction News, which will be running the complete list of molds, the purchasers and the prices.